The Bank of Japan will introduce the digital yen in 2023

Bitcoin last week saw a steady increase: from below $15, at one point on Thursday it went above $500.

However, this morning the price dropped to just over $16 due to concerns about events in China, with protests against the Covid-000 lockdown clearly mounting. Such concerns are likely to affect other markets, not just crypto. This is the importance of China in the global economy.

In the meantime, Ethereum posted decent gains last week, rising from lows below $1075 to above $1200 by the end of the week. However, like bitcoin, it sold off to around $1150 this morning.

Dogecoin reacts by leaps and bounds to Musk's plans

Elon Musk's eternal mood tracker - dogecoin – saw the price increase shortly after the Twitter owner posted plans to change the company on social media.

Musk's plans to turn Twitter into an "app for everything" tempted dogecoin investors, which has been the subject of Musk's consideration on Twitter at several points. The price of the crypto asset jumped from just under $0,09 to over $0,105 in a matter of hours - a jump of about 20% after Musk posted his presentation.

Unfortunately, the price has dropped a bit and is now around $0,093. The truth about dogecoin is that it is pure speculation about what Musk can do. Musk is one of the few people in the world who has the power to move the markets with his words, but the likelihood of dogecoin firing again is quite limited at the moment.

Cryptocurrency scams are on the rise in the UK

Data from Action Fraud show that in 2022, the number of fraud related to cryptocurrencies increased by about 32 percent. This is a disturbing finding, but there are some clear actions the cryptocurrency sector can take to protect customers and the general public from such scams.

These scams are not exclusive to cryptocurrencies. Overall, financial fraud is a huge problem in the UK - one that is largely left unsupervised except for awareness campaigns. Statistics UK finance experts show losses to the public due to general fraud of £609,8 million in the first half of 2022 alone. So what can we do to reduce cryptocurrency fraud? First, users must be skeptical about any offer. If someone offers too good to be true returns or guarantees returns, they are probably not trustworthy. But there is one more step that is already underway to protect users – regulation.

As we have seen in recent weeks, the sector is now moving towards a more constructive regulatory framework. A regulatory seal for crypto companies will help reassure consumers that the services they use are legitimate.

The Bank of Japan will introduce the digital yen in 2023

Supposedly Bank of Japan (BoJ) intends to issue an experimental version of the digital yen in 2023. The BoJ is said to be working with three major Japanese banks to develop a central bank digital currency (CBDC), focusing specifically on issuance and withdrawal mechanisms. The experiment will run for two years and the BoJ will decide whether a wider project can be launched after 2026.

CBDCs are an interesting area of ​​the crypto market because they are almost the opposite of why most cryptocurrencies were created. Managed and controlled by central bank authorities, CBDCs have received much condemnation, with many projects failing simply because the public is not as enthusiastic about central bank digital money.

But CBDCs have grown in popularity in international banking and transnational cross-border circles, and cross-border payments are becoming an increasingly important area for this technology. Institutions such as the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) are looking closely at how CBDCs could function between nations, having already conducted successful experiments between countries such as China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.